EC renews its attack on spam

Countries urged to strengthen defences against spam and malware as tougher laws are planned

The European Commission is to introduce legislative proposals at the beginning of 2007 on spam and other malware.

The EU communication on Fighting spam, spyware and malicious software, issued this week, says the EU ‘will take new initiatives in the area of legislation and research that aim to provide fresh impetus in the fight against malpractices that undermine the information society’.

Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for Information Society and Media, says it is time to turn the political concern about spam into concrete action.

‘In line with EU legislation, the Dutch authorities have managed to cut domestic spam by 85 per cent,’ she said. ‘I would like to see other countries achieving similar results

‘I will revisit this issue next year to see whether additional legislative measures against spam are required.’

The Dutch reduction in spam was achieved by setting up a team of five full-time employees with a budget of €570,000 to analyse and report malpractice.

The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, which were intended to outlaw spam, have yet to produce a single criminal prosecution in the UK.

Security vendor MessageLabs estimates that spam contributes 71 per cent of the volume of global email.

The communication says member states could do more to act on requests for cross-border assistance. It also recommends ISPs put ‘more emphasis on filtering email that leaves a service provider’s network.’

Peter Sommer, senior research fellow at the London School of Economics, says legislation should target those commissioning spam as well as spammers.

‘Lots of legitimate businesses employ spammers to target new customers. If you are going after people it has to be those commissioning the spam,’ he said.

‘There has always been a problem discriminating spam from legitimate marketing.’

EC spam demands lack bite, 22

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